Walter White
) 51 ( ) 52 ( ) |Gender = Male |Ethnicity = White |Aliases = Heisenberg Walt Jackson ( ) Mr. Mayhew ( ) Mr. Lambert ( ) |Occupation = Teacher (former) Car Washer (former) Crystal Meth Manufacturer Drug Kingpin |Family=Skyler White - Wife Walter White Jr. - Son Holly White - Daughter Hank Schrader - Brother-in-law Marie Schrader - Sister-in-law |Relationships = Jesse Pinkman - Meth cook partner Elliott Schwartz - Former colleague Gretchen Schwartz - Former colleague and girlfriend Saul Goodman - Lawyer Gustavo Fring - Former employer |Status = Alive, Active |First Appearance = |Last Appearance = }} Walter "Walt" Hartwell White, also known by his pseudonym "Heisenberg", is a chemist and a former chemistry teacher in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who, after being diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer, started manufacturing illicit crystal methamphetamine to provide for his family upon his passing. Knowing nothing about the drug trade, he enlisted the aid of his former student, Jesse Pinkman, to manufacture and sell his meth. Walt's scientific knowledge and dedication to quality lead him to produce crystal meth that is purer and more potent than anyone else's. Walt eventually devised an alternative chemical process utilizing methylamine, giving his product a distinctive blue color. His crystal meth, which was given the street name "blue sky", instantly began to dominate the market. While Walt was initially squeamish about the use of violence, he gradually came to see it as a necessity and eventually developed into a ruthless drug lord motivated solely by vanity, ego, and greed. History Background information Walter Hartwell White was born on September 7, 1959. When Walter was young, his father embarked on a rapid decline from Huntington’s disease, and all the good memories that friends and family tried to implant in the boy’s head never supplanted the terrifying memory of visiting his father in the hospital just before his death . He remembers the twisted body, the empty eyes that didn’t seem to focus on him, the terrible disinfectant smell of the hospital, and his breathing: Walter described it as “this rattling sound like if you were shaking an empty spray paint can—like there was nothing in him” . Walter studied at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) with Elliott Schwartz, where he proved himself a brilliant chemist with a specialty in X-ray crystallography . In 1985, Walt's groundbreaking research regarding photon radiography contributed to a project that was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded jointly to Herbert A. Hauptman and Jerome Karle for outstanding achievements in the development of direct methods for the determination of crystal structures. Following his education, Walter went on to co-found Gray Matter Technologies with his friend, Elliott Schwartz. At this time, he was dating his female lab assistant, Gretchen . For reasons not yet explained, Walter suddenly left Gretchen during a vacation with her family, leaving her and his research behind. Walt sold his share of the company to Elliott for $5,000. Gretchen eventually went on to marry Elliot instead, and Gray Matter became a highly successful company using Walter's research. Walter secretly feels that his work was stolen from him and bitterly blames Elliott and Gretchen for his lot in life. Around 20 years ago, Walt worked in Application Labs. He also worked in a chemical lab near Los Alamos, and met Skyler White, a hostess at that time, in a restaurant. He moved to Albuquerque to work for Sandia Laboratories just prior to his firstborn . Walt eventually went on to become a chemistry teacher at JP Wynne High School where his son, Walter White Jr., also attends as a student. Financially, this job was not enough to support his family, so Walt took on a second job at the A1A Car Wash. Season 1 On September 8, 2009—the day after his 50th birthday—Walt passed out while working at the car wash. He was then reluctantly rushed to the hospital via ambulance where he was eventually diagnosed by Dr. Belknap with stage-three terminal lung cancer and given less than two years left to live. This grim prognosis causes a dramatic change in Walt's usual mild-mannered demeanor, and he decided that he must take extreme measures to provide for his family's long-term financial security. After being invited by his DEA agent brother-in-law, Hank Schrader, to accompany him on a live raid on a methamphetamine lab, Walt has a circumstantial encounter with one of his former students, Jesse Pinkman, whom he finds out is a meth dealer and manufacturer, also referred to as cook, who goes by the name "Captain Cook". With this information, Walt blackmails Jesse into helping him also enter the illegal drug trade on the production side, using his chemistry knowledge to cook remarkably potent and chemically pure "crystal" meth with Jesse to help him distribute it. Operating out of an RV in the desert, the two must defend themselves against two dealers, formerly Jesse's distributors, who accuse Walter of being a DEA agent. At first offering them the recipe to his crystal meth, Walter instead gasses them with phosphine gas and leaves them to suffocate in the RV, before driving away with an injured Jesse in tow . Walter and Jesse soon discover that Domingo Gallardo "Krazy 8" Molina is still alive, and restrain him in Jesse's basement. After a coin flip, Jesse is tasked with disposing of Emilio Koyama's body, and Walter with killing the other, a prospect that sickens him. Ignoring Walter's instructions on using a specific plastic container, Jesse dissolves the dead body in a bathtub of hydrofluoric acid, but the acid eats through the tub and the floor beneath it, spilling dissolved entrails in the hall . Meanwhile, Walter has begun providing food and a latrine to his prisoner, Krazy-8, whom he also confides in, attempting to find any excuse to leave him alive. Due to his illness, Walter passes out briefly while delivering food in one such instance, breaking a plate. Awakening later, Walter picks up the broken plate and goes to get the key to set Krazy-8 free. However, while upstairs, Walt has a sudden realization that there is a large sharp piece of the plate missing, which Krazy-8 picked up and hid on his person while Walt was passed out. Realizing that Krazy-8 intends to kill him the second he sets him free, Walt decides that he has no choice but to kill the dealer, which he does by pulling back on the bike lock around his neck holding him in place until he chokes to death. Following the disposal of the body, Walter severs ties with Jesse . At a dinner party with his family, Walter finally reveals his cancer, having first told Skyler about his health condition some time before. They implore him to visit specialist doctors and undergo chemotherapy. At first adamant to decide his own fate, to die honorably instead of suffering the indignities of chemotherapy side-effects, Walter finally agrees to treatment. He pretends to accept financial assistance from his wealthy friends Elliott and Gretchen as a cover story to explain the source of payment for his chemotherapy. In reality, he approaches Jesse to rebuild their business arrangement and so pay for the treatments himself as a matter of pride. Jesse, unable to replicate Walter's recipe, accepts Walter's partnership and agrees to their clearly defined roles: Jesse the salesman and Walter the cook. Jesse learns that Walter has lung cancer and, realizing his goals of helping his family after his death, develops a newfound respect for him . Walt sends Jesse to negotiate with Tuco Salamanca, a violent psychopath with links to the Mexican cartels who has taken over local drug distribution after the death and disappearance of Krazy-8. During their first meeting, Tuco refuses to pay up front for the product and savagely beats Jesse when he attempts to end the deal. With Jesse in the hospital, Walt confronts Tuco with the demand for up-front payment, using the pseudonym "Heisenberg." As Tuco prepares to assault him, Walt detonates a concealed explosive (fulminated mercury), blowing out the top floor of the hideout and intimidating Tuco into surrendering payment with a promise for future business . Jesse recovers from his wounds and the two resume cooking meth, this time circumventing the restrictions on over-the-counter drug pseudoephedrine products by stealing a large drum of methylamine from a chemical warehouse and using an alternate method of synthesis. Now able to produce four times as much crystal meth as before, and of higher quality, the two begin steady business with the increasingly psychotic Tuco . Season 2 Continuing where season one ended, one of Tuco's henchmen comments that Walt and Jesse must remember who they are working for. Tuco takes it as an offensive comment and beats his henchman to death, later giving a cold stare to Jesse. Fearing for their lives, Walt and Jesse cook up a plan to kill Tuco before he kills them. Walt creates a batch of ricin, a potent poison they hope will kill Tuco after they trick him into ingesting it under the pretense that it is a new batch of meth. As they devise a scheme to deliver the poison to Tuco, a DEA raid shuts down his operation in Albuquerque. Tuco managed to scape and kidnaps Walter and Jesse, planning to take them to a "superlab" in Mexico. He first takes them to a hideout, a shack in the desert just outside the Mexican border where he lives with his uncle Hector "Tio" Salamanca and keeps the two captive. Tuco tells them that he and his cousins plan on taking Walt to cook more meth in a Mexican lab. Tuco insinuates that he will kill Jesse, but Walt manages to convince Tuco that he needs his partner in order to cook. Time is running out and fearing that the cousins will kill Jesse as soon as they arrive, the two discuss ways of killing Tuco. They realize that they have the ricin poison with them, and they tempt Tuco into taking a hit. Jesse convinces Tuco to snort a line but during the conversation, Tuco grows suspicious about the product. Jesse goes in to tell Tuco that it has a special ingredient, Pinkman's old trademark signature of adding Chili Powder to his meth. Tuco, upon hearing this, says he hates chili powder and doesn't take the drug. They try again, this time adding the poison to the food that Tuco is preparing for them and his uncle, but Tuco switches his plate and instead gives his poisoned food to his uncle, who, having witnessed the poison being put into the food, flings the plate to the floor. Tuco eventually figures out that they are trying to harm him, so he takes Jesse out back to kill him. Angry and desperate, Walt and Jesse manage to incapacitate Tuco and escape when they see a vehicle approaching the house, a vehicle they believe is bringing the cousins. Walt and Jesse run and hide, but instead of the cousins arriving, they realize that Hank has shown up after tracing Pinkman's vehicle using the tracking device installed in his car. A shootout between Hank and Tuco ensues, leaving Tuco dead. Walt and Jesse run off into the desert . Walt ends up naked in a supermarket . With Tuco out of the picture, Walt decides that it's time the two become the new meth kingpins, expanding into Tuco's old territory. Things seem to be on track until one of their dealers, Skinny Pete, is mugged, forcing Jesse to confront the perpetrators . One of the junkies is killed when his wife drops a stolen ATM on his head, but Jesse takes credit for the killing, earning him fear and respect and further solidifying "Heisenberg" in the area. Another dealer, Brandon "Badger" Mayhew, is arrested by the DEA during a sting operation, forcing Walter to deal with a crooked lawyer named Saul Goodman who can offer only an expensive solution to keep Badger from snitching while also keeping him alive. Then Saul demands a cut of the meth profit in return for being Walter and Jesse's legal counsel and adviser in their drug operation, further eroding their income . Meanwhile, Gretchen, Walter's former lover and co-head of Gray Matter, discovers Walter has been lying to his family about her and her husband Elliott paying for his cancer treatment. She is horrified when an angry and bitter Walter blames them for getting rich off his research, but she continues to keep secret Walter's refusal of their financial assistance, for his family's sake. Skyler goes back to work for Ted Beneke, her former boss, who apparently once groped her while drunk, forcing her to quit her job. She increasingly relies on Ted for emotional support due to Walter's constant absence and strange behavior. After Walter notices a large blotch on a scan of his chest, he believes the cancer has spread. Having only $16,000 remaining of the meth money after the numerous setbacks, he and Jesse spend several days in the desert cooking 38 pounds of meth to sell off before Walter dies. At the doctor, Walter discovers that the blotch is only a treatable side effect of the radiation and that his tumor has shrunk 80%. He plans to quit his meth partnership once the 38 pounds are sold off, but he finds himself bored with the return to his mundane life, finding pleasure only when he is distracted or dealing with dangerous situations . When one of Walter and Jesse's dealers, Christian "Combo" Ortega, is killed by rival dealers, Jesse is sent spiraling into a drug addiction that drags his new girlfriend Jane out of her sobriety. With their remaining dealers backing out, Saul uses his connections to introduce Walter and Jesse to a new distributor, Gustavo Fring, a cautious yet successful businessman who is skeptical of Jesse's dependability. Gus reluctantly offers to buy Walter's products for 1.2 million dollars but offers him only a one hour time frame to deliver. Walter attempts to contact Jesse to complete the exchange, but he and Jane are incapacitated after injecting heroin. Walter breaks into Pinkman's apartment to retrieve the meth. He manages to wake Jesse up, and asks him where the meth is. Jesse, who is high, tells Walter that it is hidden underneath the kitchen sink. Trying to rush to the deal, Walter receives a text message informing him that Skyler is giving birth. Walter is forced to complete the trade by himself just as Skyler goes into labor. He narrowly manages to complete the transaction, but he misses the birth of his daughter. Walter loses trust in Jesse who has now begun to use heroin and promises to give him his share of the payout only if he agrees to go sober. Jane threatens to blackmail Walter, prompting him to turn over Jesse's share of the money. Jane's father, growing suspicious of his daughter's recent behavior, catches Jesse and Jane with heroin and paraphanelia. He demands she return to rehab immediately, but Jane manages to convince him that she will go first thing the next morning. Jesse and Walter agree to go their separate ways, but Walter feels obligated to help Jesse. Walter gives Jesse his money and Jesse and Jane plan on running away before her father can take her to rehab. With almost half million dollars, they decide to go to New Zealand and get clean, agreeing that sobering up is something they should do together and the decision has to be their choice to make and not to placate those around them. They plan to destroy their remaining supply of drugs, but they decide to use just one more time. After a coincidental meeting with Donald, Walt returns to Jesse, only to discover that he and Jane have taken heroin again. Walter attempts to wake Jesse by shaking him, knocking Jane from her side to her back. When Jane begins to cough and vomit, Walter decides to not intervene, letting her die . Jesse wakes up and realizes Jane is dead, he calls Walter, asking for help. Walt contacts Saul about what happened, and Saul sends Mike Ehrmantraut to help Jesse deal with the police. Later, while dealing with his son creating a website so people can donate to Walt's treatment, Saul tells him that Jesse is living in a ramshackle trap house. Mike takes Walt to the house and they rescue Jesse, taking him to a rehab center so he can finally stop using drugs. Walt is later forced to be part of an interview, set up but Marie, about the site created by Walter Jr. Walt is finally taken for the surgery, while on medications, Walt accidentally mentions to Skyler about having a second cellphone. Several weeks after the operation, Walt returns home and is confronted by Skyler, who investigated about the second cellphone and has finally discovered his numerous lives and lies. She leaves him, even when Walt offers to tell her everything, saying, "I'm too scared to know." Alone at home, shocked that his wife left him, Walt sits by the poolside when two airplanes collide in the sky right above Walt's house. Before any of the other wreckage reigns down, a pink teddy bear splashes directly into his swimming pool. Season 3 A week after the Wayfarer Flight 515 collision, Walt finally moves out of the house and into his own apartment. The next day, Skyler comes to visit him and hands over divorce papers and revealing her deduction that Walt is a drug dealer, and this is how he has paid for his treatment. Walt concedes and specifies that he is a crystal meth manufacturer, not a dealer, but Skyler still wants a divorce, saying she won't tell the police as long as he stays away from the family. After visiting and consoling Jesse about the plane crash, Walt meets with Gus, who makes Walt an offer of 3 million dollars for three months of his time, but Walt turns him down as he wants to get his family back. Walt confides in Saul that Skyler knows about his double life, leading Saul to ask Mike to bug the White house. Walter Jr. sides with Walt during the marital spat, even packing a bag and going to Walt's new apartment in an effort to live with him, which Walt puts a stop to. However, Walter does eventually break back into his house after Skyler changes the locks to forcibly move back in with the family. Skyler responds by beginning an affair with Ted Beneke and informing Walt right away. Walt reacts with furious anger at the realization that his wife is having an affair, and goes to Beneke Fabricators to talk to Ted. While waiting outside his office, Walt notices Ted peeking through the blinds and attempts to force his way into the office by throwing a large potted plant at the window. Security escorts him out and Mike picks him up and takes him straight to Saul's office, revealing they both knew about the affair because of the bugs. Walt furiously fires Saul for bugging his house, who cancels the website money laundering. Following an attempt by Walt to initiate an affair with Carmen Molina, he is suspended indefinitely with pay, and refuses to leave the house despite Skyler's affair. Gus eventually pulls him back into the meth-cooking business with a ploy pitting Jesse and Walt against one another, and showing him the state-of-the-art superlab he has just installed in one of his buildings. Once he has decided to go back in he moves back out of the house and signs Skyler's divorce papers. Hank informs Walt of his impending investigation into Jesse and the RV, prompting Walt to get involved in the destruction of the RV, barely managing to not be discovered by Hank thanks to a well-timed phone call. After Jesse lands in the hospital due to Hank's beating, Walt manipulates Gus into making Jesse his partner to replace the nerdy Gale so Jesse will drop the charges on Hank. Later, Skyler forces Walt to pay for Hank's hospital bills after she deduces he is the reason behind the attack on Hank, lying to Marie and telling her that Walt earned the money counting cards and gambling in backrooms, providing a less extreme lie to account for his behavior and finances. When Hank comes around, he lets the family know he received a warning call one minute before the ambush informing him of it. Walt concludes that Gus has orchestrated this entire series of events: steering the cousins away from him and onto Hank while also saving Hank's life, creating a firefight that would put heat on the cartel and allow him to corner the meth market in the Southwest. Walt meets with Gus at the Pollos Hermanos industrial plant, letting him know he has come to this conclusion and is grateful. Gus in return extends Walt's contract to 15 million dollars for a year's work along with a guarantee of safety for his family. As Walt begins to write checks for Hank's medical bills, Skyler decides to become involved in the money laundering side of things, meeting with Walt and Saul and asserting her own demands. Walt also becomes friendlier with Gus, eating dinner with him on occasion. However, when Jesse discovers Tomas, Andrea's brother, murdered Combo, and is working for dealers who work for Gus, he demands retribution. Gus agrees to stop using children in his organization, but Tomas then turns up dead in a playground. When Jesse seeks vengeance against the two dealers who murdered him, Walt intervenes and kills them both, telling Jesse to run, fearing Gus's wrath. Walt meets with Gus and Mike in the desert, asserting that what he did was necessary and Jesse is in hiding, not to be given up by Walt. Gus rehires Gale as Walt's lab assistant, secretly planning to replace Walt with Gale as his skills at running the lab increase. Walt begins to suspect this, and has Jesse lie in wait near Gale's apartment with a gun. When Mike and Victor kidnap Walt, planning to kill him, he promises to give up Jesse, but instead orders him to kill Gale, saving both their lives and keeping their jobs safe. Jesse goes to Gale's apartment and despite his pleas, shoots him as the season ends. Season 4 After Jesse shot Gale, the two were brought to the lab and held together until Gus arrived and slit Victor's throat for being seen at the murder scene. Ever since, Walt has started to become paranoid and is plotting to get rid of Gus in order to ensure his safety. Walt bought a .38 Snub Nose Revolver from a guns dealer and started practicing his draw, and also tried getting Mike to help him get an audience with Gus so he could assassinate the drug-lord. Walt worries that Gus is trying to set Jesse against him. Lately Jesse has been tasked with helping Mike and has met with Gus, so Walt creates some ricin and gives it to Jesse hoping that he'll be able to get close enough to poison Gus. After giving him the ricin, Walt places a GPS tracker on Jesse's car, confirming that Jesse went to Gus's house yet didn't poison him. When Jesse seeks Walt's help regarding how to teach the cartel how to make meth, Walt confronts him about the ricin and they get into a fist fight . While Jesse is in Mexico, Walt continues cooking meth in the superlab under the supervision of Tyrus Kitt. He also drives Hank out to the L. P. Factory Farm‏‎‏‎ and to the industrial laundry as part of Hank's investigation. After being tasared and kidnapped by Tyrus, Gus meets with Walt and says that he's going to be taking care of Hank and that if he interferes, he'll kill Walt's family. Immediately Walt goes to Saul to get the phone number of the guy who makes people disappear and instructs Saul to tip-off law enforcement about the threat against Hank. At home, Walt is horrified to discover that he doesn't actually have enough cash to pay the guy to make his family disappear . Because he had Saul make an anonymous tip to the D.E.A. threatening that The Cartel was seeking to kill him in retaliation for his killing of The Cousins, the D.E.A. send agents to Hank's house to guard him and Marie. Walt sends Skyler, Walt Jr., and Holly with them until he can figure out how to get Gus before he can make good on his threat to execute them all. Walt manipulates Jesse into believing this was the work of Gus, who has a history of exploiting children and using poison to eliminate his enemies. Together they plan to have Jesse refuse to cook and lure Gus to the hospital so Walt can use a radio-activated pipe-bomb to blow up his vehicle and kill him. As Gus is leaving the hospital, however, he realizes that if he didn't poison Brock, then somebody did, and has the gut instinct to abandon his Volvo and seek another mode of transportation, figuring Walt is somehow behind the scheme. As Gus and his henchmen walk away, Walt bursts into tears from a rooftop across the street, distraught that another attempt on Gus has failed. When Walt retrieves the car-bomb, he asks Jesse what happened, but Jesse is immediately taken in for questioning by federal agents for suspicion of possessing ricin. Walt has Saul visit Jesse while he's under arrest and he clues Saul into a potential enemy of Gus, Hector Salamanca, who Gus has been terrorizing at a retirement home. Walt deduces that Hector is an enemy of Gus. Walt goes to the home and suggests that Hector surely hates Walt for what happened to Tuco, Leonel and Marco, but surely Hector must hate Gus more for killing his friends and family. Walt convinces Hector to strap the bomb under his wheelchair once he returns from a meeting with Hank, in which Hector offers no other information, but succeeds in luring Gus to the retirement home. Hector later detonates the bomb Walt strapped to his wheelchair, killing Hector and Tyrus instantly and fatally wounding Gus. Later that same day, Walt kidnaps one of Gus' henchman and forces him to escort them down the elevator to the main Super-Lab under the laundry where Jesse has been taken hostage and forced to cook the meth. Walt guns down both men and then rescues Jesse, who assists him in dumping all the chemicals and starting a huge fire before they evacuate all the immigrants working in the laundry. Back on the rooftop of the hospital, Jesse reveals to Walt that Brock wasn't poisoned with Ricin, but a plant called Lily of the Valley which children often think is edible. Walt is relieved that Brock is ok and tells an uncertain Jesse that even though Gus did not poison Brock, he still "had to go". After Jesse leaves, Walt calls Skyler, who is curious about what happened with Gus and his men's death. Walt simply tells her, "I won..." and then drives off, pausing for a moment to gaze at Gus's Volvo still in the parking garage, and smiles. The final shot of Season 4 zooms back in on the potted plant in Walt's yard that the spinning gun pointed at in the previous episode. As the camera zooms in on the plant, the music plays "until you travel to the place you can't come back..." and the tag "Lily of the Valley" is revealed, implying that Walt had poisoned Brock to win back Jesse's trust against Gus. Season 5 After Gus' death, Walt returned home and disposed of all evidence from the pipe bomb and Lily of the Valley poison. Walter White Jr. and Skyler White return home and while Jr. is excited about Hank's validation, Skyler tells Walt that she is afraid of him. Walt enjoyed a glass of scotch in celebration when he suddenly remembered Gus' cameras in the superlab. Walt and Jesse stopped Mike Ehrmantraut in the desert and after a heated argument the three worked with Old Joe to devise a plan to destroy Gus' laptop which was being held at the local police evidence locker. They managed to destroy the laptop by powering up a giant magnet inside a moving truck outside the police station. They escaped but had to leave the truck. In the car, Walt told Mike that he was certain the magnet worked "because I said so." Walt visited Saul Goodman at his office and when Saul tried to fire him as his client, Walt told him "we're done when I say we're done." Returning home, Walt told Skyler he knew what happened to Ted and, hugging her, said "I forgive you." Before helping Jesse search for the missing ricin cigarette, Walt hid the ricin in his bedroom's electrical outlet and placed a dummy cigarette in Jesse's roomba. Walt consoled Jesse after he had an emotional breakdown about nearly killing his partner and closest ally. Walt then used Jesse's guilt and vulnerability to convince him to continue their work together. Walt and Jesse extended an offer to Mike to form a new meth operation and accepted his decision to decline. When the DEA ceased Mike's funds he reluctantly changed his mind and Walt smugly accepted his partnership. Walt, Jesse, and Mike worked with Saul to sort out a new front for the meth manufacturing. They ended up agreeing on a mobile lab inside houses that were being bug bombed by Vamonos Pest Control. The mobile lab yielded less meth per cook than they were making for Gus but they each received a larger cut. However, Mike took "Legacy Funds" from each cook to recoup the lost savings of Fring's former colleages. Walt didn't take to this decision kindly at first but reluctantly accepted it. Walt sells his Aztek to his mechanic for $50 and buys himself a new Chrysler 300 and Jr. another Dodge Challenger. He tells Skyler to launder another $20,000 and she tells him that she wants the children out of the house. He refuses. The next morning is September 7, 2010—Walt's 51th birthday. The next day, exactly one year will have passed since Walt received his lung cancer diagnosis. During breakfast Skyler reluctantly makes a "51" with bacon on Walt's eggs to celebrate his birthday. That evening, Walt, Skyler, Walter, Jr., Hank and Marie finish a low-key birthday dinner in the Whites' back yard. After Walter, Jr. excuses himself, Walt points out that it's been a year since his cancer diagnosis. As he reminisces about the early days of his treatment and thanks the family for their support over the last year, Skyler slowly descends into the pool, fully-clothed, and sinks to the bottom. Panicked, Marie and Hank rush around the edge of the pool until Walt plunges in to pull her out . Later, Hank and Marie offer, on behalf of Skyler, to take Walt Jr. and Holly for a few days. Walt sarcastically congratulates a frightened Skyler about her brilliant plan but she tells him that her only choice is to wait for Walt's cancer to return and keep the children away from as much crime as she can. The next day, as Mike and Jesse argue over killing Lydia Rodarte-Quayle Walt, looking at his Heisenberg hat, informs them that the cooking must never slow down, no matter what. Outside, Jesse gives Walt a brand new TAG Heuer watch. At home, Walt shows the watch to Skyler and tell her that she will come around, just as Jesse did. After interrogating Lydia with Mike and Jesse, they learn she had nothing to do with the GPS tracker. She suggests they steal methylamine from a train that runs through New Mexico but Walt calls the task impossible. Jesse comes up with a plan involving siphoning off 1,000 gallons and replacing it with water. The men and Todd Alquist narrowly pull off the heist and witness as Todd murders a bystander. After disposing of the boy's bike and body; Walt, Jesse and Mike debate what to do with Todd. They vote to keep him close so he won't do anything rash. Walt tries to tell Jesse that their operation is now in the "smooth sailing" mode but the next day Jesse and Mike inform him they are selling their share of methylamine for $5 million each and bowing out of the meth trade. Walt refuses to join them, even when Mike's contact refuses to buy unless he gets all 1,000 gallons. Walt forces Jesse to dine with him and Skyler and when Skyler sullenly leaves the table he reveals to Jesse that his family has left him and his drug empire is the only thing that matters to him. Walt then heads to the Vamonos HQ where he is tied up by Mike so the methylamine can be sold without Walt's interruption. Walt escapes and hides the methylamine, promising -- at gunpoint -- that he has a solution where "everybody wins". At the meeting with Declan, Walt offers to sell Mike's 35% stake in the crew and responsibility for distrubution for $5 million. After the deal is sealed, Walt and Jesse retreive he methylamine from the Car Wash under the glare of Skyler. Jesse reminds Walt that he is done with the meth trade too but Walt tries to convince him that throwing his talent away is a mistake. Jesse willingly leaves Vamonos without a penny. Walt then begins training Todd on cooking meth. Walt removes the bugs from Hank's office and overhears that the DEA is going to arrest Mike. Walt tips off Mike and later meets him to hand off a "burn bag" of cash, a gun, and a passport. After handing over the bag, Walt demanded Mike give him the names of the nine guys in prison who would likely flip on Walt since their legacy funds stopped flowing. Mike refused and in a fit of rage Walt storms up to Mike's car and shoots him through the window. Horrified by his actions, Walt drops the gun and staggers to Mike. He attempts to apologize but shuts up on Mike's dying request. Walt and Todd disposed of Mike's car and body. Walt made an arrangement with Lydia to sell Blue Sky to the Czech Republic in exchange for the names of Gus' former ten henchmen. Walt paid Todd's uncle and neo-Nazi friends to murder them all in the span of two minutes. The plan was executed perfectly and no one was able to squeal to the DEA. Walt and Todd continued to cook meth flawlessly and effortlessly for three months until Skyler showed Walt a giant pile of cash in a storage unit and asked him for her children back. After a visit to the doctor, Walt paid Jesse a visit and gave him two duffle bags of cash. He then told Skyler "I'm out" and they had a lunch the next day with their kids and Hank and Marie. Nine Months later, Walt is at a New Mexico Denny's restaurant, with a full head of a hair and an unkempt beard, celebrating his 52nd birthday. A waitress tries to make conversation with him but Walt keeps to himself and gives her a fake name (Lambert, which is Skyler's and Marie's maiden names) and shows her a fake ID from New Hampshire. Excusing himself to the restroom, Walt then trades an envelope of cash for a set of car keys in the bathroom with Lawson, his previous gun dealer. Before exiting the restroom, Walt lets out a slight cough, and takes some medication. The keys belong to a car in the parking lot with an M60 machine gun in the trunk. Deaths Murders committed by Walt *'Emilio Koyama': Poisoned with phosphine gas. ("Pilot") *'Domingo Gallardo "Krazy 8" Molina': Strangled him with a bike lock. ("...and the Bag's in the River") *'Rival Dealers': Ran over them with his car, then shot one of them in the head. ("Half Measures") *'2 of Gus' Henchmen': Both shot to death. ("Face Off") *'Mike Ehrmantraut': Shot in the guts. ("Say My Name") Murders connected to Walt *'Gale Boetticher': Shot by Jesse on Walt's orders so that Walt and Jesse would be the only meth manufacturers available. ("Full Measure") *'Gustavo Fring': Blown up by Hector Salamanca. Walter supplied the bomb. ("Face Off") *'Tyrus Kitt': Blown up by Hector Salamanca. Walter supplied the bomb. ("Face Off") *'Dan Wachsberger': Stabbed to death by White Supermacist group on Walt's orders. ("Gliding Over All") *'Jack McGann': Stabbed to death by White Supermacist group on Walt's orders. ("Gliding Over All") *'Andrew Holt': Stabbed to death by White Supermacist group on Walt's orders. ("Gliding Over All") *'Anthony Perez': Stabbed to death by White Supermacist group on Walt's orders. ("Gliding Over All") *'Isaac Conley': Stabbed to death by White Supermacist group on Walt's orders. ("Gliding Over All") *'William Moniz': Stabbed to death by White Supermacist group on Walt's orders. ("Gliding Over All") *'Harris Boivin': Stabbed to death by White Supermacist group on Walt's orders. ("Gliding Over All") *'Raymond Martinez': Stabbed to death by White Supermacist group on Walt's orders. ("Gliding Over All") *'Ron Forenall': Stabbed to death by White Supermacist group on Walt's orders. ("Gliding Over All") *'Dennis Markowski': Burned to death by White Supermacist group on Walt's orders. ("Gliding Over All") Deaths connected to Walt *'Jane Margolis': Passed out after intravenously injecting a large amount of heroin. Soon after, she inadvertently rolled onto her back, causing her to aspirate. Walt watched these events unfold, but ultimately made the difficult decision not to save her. ("Phoenix") *'167 People aboard the Wayfarer 515': Due to Walt's conscious decision not to save Jane as she aspirated, Donald Margolis (Jane's father), grief-stricken and consequently unfocused, caused Wayfarer Flight 515 to collide with another plane while working as an air traffic controller. ("ABQ") *'Hector "Tio" Salamanca': Voluntarily blew himself up. Walter supplied the bomb. ("Face Off") Characterization Prior to his entry into the meth business, Walter had lived a decent, moralistic man’s life for 50 years, and all he'd ever achieved had been humiliation and misery. His manhood is questioned, and he provides instruction to uninterested and disrespectful students. The job pays so poorly that he is forced to take a second job at a car wash, which proves particularly humiliating when he must clean the cars of his own students. The news of his lung cancer leaves Walt numb - no trace of sadness or fury in him; it’s as if he was “dead anyway.” Walt’s numbness is stressed as he hears nothing but a beeping sound during the news and becomes fixated on a mustard stain – he’s not surprised at all: “Lung cancer, inoperable – best case scenario with chemo, I’ll live maybe another couple of years.” Following the news, Walt's fury at being patronised at the car wash boils over: he says “Fuck you Bogdan! And your eyebrows!” – he then quits his job and wrecks the place. After withdrawing his life savings to pay for the RV that would become Walt and Jesse's mobile meth lab, Jesse questions Walt about his decision to enter the Meth business, Walt revealed that he felt "awake", hinting that his sudden diagnosis gave Walt the wake up call he needed to finally become a man. After being diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer, Walter originally resorted to manufacturing methamphetamine to ensure his family's financial security when he dies. However, as the series progresses, Walter gradually becomes darker and takes on a more villainous role. Series creator Vince Gilligan has described his goal with Walter White as turning Mr. Chips into Scarface, and his deliberately made the character less and less sympathetic. Gilligan said, "He's going from being a protagonist to an antagonist. We want to make people question who they're pulling for, and why." Bryan Cranston said by the fourth season: "I think Walt's figured out it's better to be a pursuer than the pursued. He's well on his way to badass." Walt's chemistry lesson in the Pilot has often being used to sum up the themes of the series: he says, "Technically, chemistry is the study of matter, but I prefer to see it as the study of change” – this change can be thought of as Walt's change from decent teacher to mighty drug king pin. Walt also mentions that chemistry is "growth, decay, and transformation.” Throughout his journey, Walt reaches heights then descends into chaos – notably it occurs between Season 3 and 4; from working safely in the superlab with a steady relationship with Gus ("Growth,), Walt ends up in seemingly hopeless situations, left with little money and hunted by the DEA and Gus (decay,) “Crawl Space.”, this milestone triggers a new type of Heisenberg, a ruthless leader that has realized that "it's better to be the pursuer than the pursued" (and transformation."). His transformation into Heisenberg is a slow and ongoing process that happens beneath the surface, as the dark and sinister Heisenberg grows with every milestone he crosses. His transformation can be seen through the contrast between family man Walt and drug king pin Heisenberg; at the start of the series it is clear when he switches between his two sides, Heisenberg is only seen in the eyes of fellow criminals while he easily and evidently switches back to the friendly Walter White within the eyes of his family. However, as the series progresses, the line between Heisenberg and Walt becomes more and more faded as Walt's Heisenberg side starts to spill over into his civilian life, it becomes hard to determine wether Walt is still the Walt we saw at the beginning of the series, or if Heisenberg has taken over. Walt is a prideful man, even when assuming his journey is over. Afraid of the cops, Walt desperately records a video message for his family, probably considering attempting suicide in sincerity. Walt says this directly to the camera (and law officials): "''This is NOT an admission of Guilt" '' – he doesn’t regret his actions, except for a few occasions. He needs to believe he’s doing the meth business for his family, otherwise he can’t justify the crimes and feel secure. At first he covers the camera; he doesn’t want to be seen this way, crying. Walt's pride is what keeps him from accepting Gretchen and Elliot's "charity" (offering to pay for his treatment) and his fury at his son asking for donations through the website SaveWalterWhite.com. Furthermore, in “Salud” he tells Junior he doesn’t want to be remembered as a weak, dying man. Walt borrowed his "Heisenberg" pseudonym from the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Werner Heisenberg, who is most famous for the Uncertainty Principle, which in its most basic form speaks to the general probabilistic. uncertain nature of quantum mechanics - Heisenberg's uncertainty principle holds that even if some properties are known, other equally important properties will be uncertain. The sides of Walter's personality have been described as "sociopath and family man, scientist and killer, rational being and creature of impulse, entrepreneur and loser." In a way, the Heisenberg persona is essentially everything Walt isn't; he is confident, strong, authoritative, patient, manipulative, and cruel. As Heisenberg, Walt prefers to die in a fight a leave a legacy (good or bad) instead of giving in. Walt has warring sides within him - one is the person whom he wants to be; family-oriented, employable, and happy. The other, Walt's repressed side, is gratified, feared, and powerful. The argument can be made that the cancer was merely a catalyst for Walt embracing this other side to his personality that was there all along. Walter proves himself to be a natural liar. According to Vince Gilligan, "Walter is a man who lies to his family, lies to his friends, lies to the world about who he truly is. But what I think makes him a standout liar is that first and foremost he is lying to himself." In the beginning, Walter could justify turning to meth manufacture because he didn't think he had much time left and wanted to leave his family well protected after he was gone. Walt continues to sees himself as a good family man who does things for very pragmatic, practical reasons. He doesn’t examine himself too closely; he doesn’t see the truth of his reality. Initially, Walter could be seen as a decent man driven by desperate circumstances to do terrible things, but as the series progressed it becomes clearer that this notion is either wishful thinking or tactical deceit on Walter's part. Walt is initially reluctant about the use of violence, but gradually comes to see it as a necessity. Howevever, he continues to choose not to see himself as a bad guy. He also comes to find his new status as a drug lord as psychologically rewarding, leading him to become less and less reluctant to resort to criminal acts such as theft, extortion, money laundering, depraved indifference, and murder. Walt's machiavellian descent into the criminal underworld reveals a surprising level of repressed ambition, rage, resentment, vanity, and an increasing ruthlessness which has alienated him from his family and colleagues. Quotes Trivia * Walt's car was a well-used 2003 Pontiac Aztek that had been repainted in a non-factory color chosen by series creator Vince Gilligan, perhaps to mimic the look of a badly-faded factory paint job or as symbolic of Walt's previously bland existence. The windshield has been broken and replaced several times due to various acts that have been a result of Walt's descent into the drug world. The show's production team has at least 2 Azteks equipped for different filming situations. * Walt is 5'11" (180 cm) and 165-170 lbs (75-77 kg) . * "Heisenberg", the actual Werner Heisenberg from which he derived his criminal alias, was born on December 5, 1901, at Würzburg, and was a German theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to quantum mechanics. He was also 'investigated' by the SS before his acceptance into the Nazi controlled scientific reich. One of his main contributions to science was the uncertainty principle (hence, this being the probable cause for Walter choosing Heisenberg as his alias). Heisenberg died of cancer in 1976. * Walter is one of two characters (along with Jesse Pinkman) to have appeared in every episode thus far. * Walter was born September 7, 1959, meaning that "Pilot" takes place in 2009, "Fifty-One" in 2010, and the flash-forward in "Live Free or Die" in 2011. es:Walter White Category:Breaking Bad characters Category:Gangsters Category:Murderers Category:Walt's drug empire